[Draft] Walk This Way

[Zwangzug]

Title: Walk This Way

Text: Devotees of the Cult of Cyan have proclaimed a small shrine in rural @@NAME@@ to be the resting place of Saint Beryl, an ancient Cyanist prophet. Now, Cyanists from near and far wish to pay their respects there.

Validity: some religious freedom, no closed borders

1. "When April's showers have quenched March's drought, people want to go on pilgrimages," summarizes @@randomfirstname@@ Chaucer, a Cyanist poet and vagabond. "We must set aside sacred times of year when believers can walk to this holy site and contemplate the divine. It matters not whether you hail from @@NAME@@ or Maxtopia; all sisters and brothers of the faith must be able to worship here!"
effect: religious believers are strengthening their soles

2. "Why stop with the Cyanists?" challenges @@randomname@@, your Minister of Tourism. "Set up hostels and comfortable accommodations along the route, and bill it to tourists looking to exercise or get back to nature. We can even issue fancy stamps to people who make it all the way. Surely Saint Beryl would have wanted her grave to be a lively place!"
effect: all roads lead to roomy hotels

3. "Why start with the Cyanists?" retorts @@randomname@@, your Minister of Border Security. "The last thing we need are some aimless hippies tripping all over the place to find themselves, and the second-to-last thing we need are religious zealots carefully mapping our roadways. @@NAME@@ should deny visas to anyone with supernatural motivations, and only allow travel with legitimate business interests."
effect: inbound ferries turn around if passengers pray for a safe trip

4. "You know the saying; if the people can't come to Beryl, then Beryl will have to come to the people! Er, something like that," notes @@randomname@@, your boisterous Minister of Syncretism. "It shouldn't be too hard to dig up a few relics and take them on the road. Imagine it; throngs of foreigners lined up to meet our agents, who can give them the official perspective about life in @@NAME@@ while they goggle at some bones!"
effect: dem bones gonna get around

[Verdant Haven]

I love the Canterbury Tales aspect of the first option, and would love to see some references scatted into the text! Perhaps have the speakers be identified with the various tales... a parson, a miller, a prioress, that sort of thing? Perhaps Saint Beryl could be identified as a "holy martyr" that the pilgrims seek, or perhaps name the issue "A blissful martyr for to seek" or the like? Even just little inserts, like having the second speaker suggest setting up "hostelry" for the pilgrims would be great little nods to the original, without losing meaning and story.

Sorry, not meaning to make it too heavy handed or anything - I just have a soft spot for Canterbury Tales, and older (OE, ME, EModE) English texts in general!

[Trotterdam]

1. "When April's showers have quenched March's drought, people want to go on pilgrimages," summarizes @@randomfirstname@@ Chaucer, a Cyanist poet and vagabond. "We must set aside sacred times of year when believers can walk to this holy site and contemplate the divine. It matters not whether you hail from @@NAME@@ or Maxtopia; all sisters and brothers of the faith must be able to worship here!"

Why does this need government permission? Unless a nation is strongly anti-tourism, the default position is that people already have a right to come visit if they want (and it's not until option 3 that anyone argues doing otherwise), so this option isn't doing anything.

"We must set aside sacred times of year" is nonsensical if people can already visit anytime they want. Actually, that lead-up would be more fitting for an option that wants to force people to make a pilgrimage even if they don't want to.

...Who owns the shrine? If it's privately-owned by someone other than a Cyanist faith authority, then I guess that owner might decide to be uncooperative.

[Baggieland]

Text: Devotees of the Cult of Cyan have proclaimed a small shrine in rural @@NAME@@ to be the resting place of Saint Beryl, an ancient Cyanist prophet. Now, Cyanists from near and far wish to pay their respects there.

Why is this a problem that requires LEADER's attention?

[Zwangzug]

I love the Canterbury Tales aspect of the first option, and would love to see some references scatted into the text! Perhaps have the speakers be identified with the various tales... a parson, a miller, a prioress, that sort of thing? Perhaps Saint Beryl could be identified as a "holy martyr" that the pilgrims seek, or perhaps name the issue "A blissful martyr for to seek" or the like? Even just little inserts, like having the second speaker suggest setting up "hostelry" for the pilgrims would be great little nods to the original, without losing meaning and story.

Sorry, not meaning to make it too heavy handed or anything - I just have a soft spot for Canterbury Tales, and older (OE, ME, EModE) English texts in general!

Haha, so I'll admit...I haven't actually read it >.> I was thinking that if I added more fixed names in this vein, it would be something like Santiago or Hadzi, to allude to different RL pilgrimages rather than just the one. But this was the only literary quote that stuck out to me.

(I did take a course in Medieval English Lit back in the day, so I can nod approvingly at Sir Gawain/Pearl's complicated rhyme schemes!)

"Why is this a national issue for @@LEADER@@" Some of the larger pilgrimages have national-level implications; ie, the Camino de Santiago was boosted by Franco's government in Spain to promote tourism, and the huge scale of the Hajj has led to incidents such as mass stampeding, etc. Maybe it would be better to have something like "Cyanist leaders are insisting that every member of the faith make a pilgrimage?"

[Baggieland]

"Why is this a national issue for @@LEADER@@" Some of the larger pilgrimages have national-level implications; ie, the Camino de Santiago was boosted by Franco's government in Spain to promote tourism, and the huge scale of the Hajj has led to incidents such as mass stampeding, etc. Maybe it would be better to have something like "Cyanist leaders are insisting that every member of the faith make a pilgrimage?"

You definitely need something to suggest it's large scale.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

I think the issue would make more sense for nations that don't have generally open borders, as then it'd be a case of easing freedom of movement vs lost tourist revenue.

[Australian rePublic]

Option 4- Why would anyone from this cult want that?